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Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis, a movie that follows a musician through a week of his life, is a complicated film to rate concerning cats. The second scene of the film features a cat heavily, waking up Llewyn as he sleeps on a friend’s couch. Then, when Llewyn opens the door, the cat escapes. (It’s a clear sign that Llewyn does not have a cat of his own.) Llewyn gets a hold of the cat, but cannot get back into the apartment.

From that point forward, cats are featured fairly prominently. He travels with a cat and carries it around in his arms, which is pretty cute to see. There’s a consistency in the cat sightings. While you may still have time to wonder about the cat, you usually get to see it again soon enough. The balance of cat time on screen is pretty satisfying when the cat is not the main character.

However, the other side to the story is not so good. Aside from the owners of the cat, most people seem to find the cat to be a nuisance or somehow unpleasant. People talk about the cat negatively, while the cat does nothing wrong (aside from running outside the apartment.) There’s just a lot of antagonism towards the cat in general that can be rather unpleasant to watch. Some of those moments are spoilers, so read at your own risk:

Click to Reveal Spoiler #1

Llewyn finds a second cat (mistaking it for the first cat) and takes it with him on a road trip. When the car breaks down, he abandons the very sweet cat and leaves it with a man who clearly didn’t like it.

Llewyn finds a second cat (mistaking it for the first cat) and takes it with him on a road trip. When the car breaks down, he abandons the very sweet cat and leaves it with a man who clearly didn’t like it.

Click to Reveal Spoiler #2

While driving once more, he hits a creature that very much looks like a cat, perhaps the one he abandoned. It can walk away, though, so it seems okay.

While driving once more, he hits a creature that very much looks like a cat, perhaps the one he abandoned. It can walk away, though, so it seems okay.

These moments – in addition to all of the others – would lower this to simply one-half paw in quality, except for the fact that it ends on a happier note:

Click to Reveal Spoiler #3

The original lost kitty is found by its owners, safe and sound and happy again.

The original lost kitty is found by its owners, safe and sound and happy again.

If you’re looking for a movie that is full of cat without much care for how the cats are treated, I recommend this one. However, if you’re not a fan of general gloom around a cat, I’d suggest a pass on this one.

Have you seen the film? What do you think of the cats of Inside Llewyn Davis?